spicer-leaming house

Built: c. 1820. Original Location: Lower Township, on land now occupied by the Cape May Canal.

Visit with a 19th century housewife, demonstrating the domestic arts a woman in a rural community would have been responsible for. Tasks demonstrated include open-hearth cooking, gardening and more.

This double house served one family and has both a parlor and kitchen on the first floor. Notable interior elements consist of hand-planed interior wall boarding, raised paneling and flared corner posts. In the early days (1800-1820), the farmhouse was the home of the Jacob Spicer family and later of his descendants, the Leamings. It was originally built on a knoll near a small creek known as Spicer’s Creek which is now a canal called Spicer’s Canal. The house was part of Spicer’s Plantation and was known as “neck” farm, because it sat on a neck or meander of the creek. Builder, Col. Jacob Spicer, was an early settler, arriving about 1691. In 1750, his son Jacob Spicer Esq. along with Aaron Leaming, published the “Concessions & Agreements,” establishing freedom of religion, freedom of speech, trial by jury, elections and other rights for New Jerseyians. .